Equality Federation won’t stop until all LGBTQ+ people are fully empowered and represented in their communities, experiencing full equality in their lives.
ORLANDO, FL – Equality Federation member Equality Florida, faith leaders, and family members of victims of the Pulse shooting were joined by nearly 200 local advocates on August 11th outside the “Rediscovering God in America” conference in Orlando to call out Marco Rubio and Donald Trump.
Equality Federation is proud to have raised $22,369 from donors like you on Give OUT Day – August, 2nd. We won a second place prize of $5k for garnering the second most individual donors of the day bringing our grand total raised to $27,369.
Nearly 200 leaders from Equality Federation’s state-based partner membership as well as leaders from national LGBTQ organizations attended our annual Leadership Conference this July in Portland, Oregon. Local hosts Basic Rights Oregon supported the efforts and an array of new sponsors ensured the event was a smashing success.
Tina Kotek, a Representative from Oregon, became the nation’s first openly lesbian House Speaker when she was sworn into office in 2013. She’s a longtime advocate of LGBTQ equality but is also well-known for her advocacy efforts around housing, health care, and other important issues that most impact marginalized communities.
Summer of Action has kicked off in Phoenix, Atlanta, Jacksonville, and Cleveland! Over the next three weeks we will have thousands of conversations about nondiscrimination with people on their front porches and on the phone!
Equality Federation congratulates South Carolina Equality and all of the hardworking South Carolinians who helped ensure the defeat of S.1203, an anti-transgender bill that would have enshrined discrimination into state law by forcing transgender people to use the bathroom consistent with their biological sex, not their gender identity that they live every day, in all publicly-owned facilities including schools.
Federation member PROMO Missouri is celebrating victory as anti-LGBTQ, religious exemption legislation, SJR 39, has failed to make it out of committee rendering it dead.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has signed discriminatory legislation that allows counselors and therapists to refuse treatment based on their religious objections or personal beliefs. The American Counseling Association has called the legislation an “unprecedented attack” on the counseling profession.
On Thursday, April 28th, the House Armed Services Committee voted to pass a discriminatory amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act introduced by Representative Steve Russell (R-OK). The amendment applies the private employer religious exemptions of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act to religious organizations receiving any federal contract or grant – which could include universities and hospitals employing thousands of people.
President Obama called for the repeal of Anti-LGBTQ bills in North Carolina and Mississippi at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister, David Cameron. The British Government recently issued a travel warning to LGBTQ tourists visiting those states.
In a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Virginia, a federal court of appeals ruled in favor of plaintiff Gavin Grimm, a transgender student at Gloucester High School who was not permitted to use the facilities and participate in the programs that match the gender he lives everyday. This is a historic victory for transgender students who, like all students, deserve a fair opportunity to fully participate and succeed in school as their authentic selves.
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With your support, we'll be able to continue our work to build the leaders of today and tomorrow, strengthen state-based LGBTQ+ organizations, and make critical progress on the issues that matter most—like protecting transgender people, ending HIV criminalization and ensuring access to care, and banning conversion therapy across the country.
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